What we love…

beautiful illustrations, ability to engage with the pages to find the balloon and a interactive story which encourages imagination

What we’d love to see…

a way to make the text bigger and a way to keep the clouds from hiding the text

Summary

Well illustrated picture book that encourages kids to look beyond the ordinary and use their imagination, features narration, pictures and interaction including a find the balloon game.

Our Rating

Casper is a little boy who has a fantastic imagination, one that includes a world of Balloons. Balloon Kingdom is an interactive adventure type picture book for kids written by ComiCorp for iOS. The app features Casper who plays a little boy who has an active imagination. Casper meets an old man who has a cart full of balloons, he speaks to the man and tells him that he loves that balloons that float in the air while everything else remains on the ground. He gives Casper a large balloon which has powers to bring him to places including the balloon kingdom. This picture book app is designed for early elementary school aged children and includes voice narration as well as the ability to read it to yourself. While reading the book there is a mission to find the balloon on each page which encourages children to engage with the story, each page has elements you can touch ranging from drums to play to flying with the balloons. Casper’s sister and parents are a bit concerned about his visits to the Balloon Kingdom and ask him if it is his active imagination or if it is real. Casper tells the balloon one day that he won’t play with him any more and that he’s not “real” and closes his curtains to the balloon. He sends him away during a rainstorm and begins to miss him and begins to lose his imagination. Suddenly the balloon peddler comes back and offers him another balloon.

Casper and his balloon friend have wonderful adventures in a variety of places including the Balloon Kingdom which changes slightly each time they visit. My son especially liked the “balloon swinging trees” and the “balloon maze”. The illustrations and variety of interactions like drumming, moving the balloons are fun and and encourage children to not only listen to the story, but to participate in it.

In terms of enhancements, I found that the text was a bit small on my device and I would have loved a way to make it larger. Also, at times, the text “hid” the text a bit as well as the interactive elements on the page. At the bottom is a arrow, which my son kept touching which brings you forward and back and provides a page by page overview of the story. I wish that for younger kids there was a way to put it elsewhere on the page, as my son touched it several times in error. My son also wished there was a page which had the balloon kingdom where he could navigate and explore in a map format. My son also wished there was a place where he could see his collected balloons from the story.

This is a fun interactive picture book which encourages kids to use their imagination and realize that all that they imagine could come true in the story. It also has an underlying theme of friendship. The book delighted my seven year old who has gone on some “adventures” of his own in the balloon kingdom.

Balloon Kingdom - An interactive adventure book for kids, families and educators

Alison, the American iMum is from Massachusetts. She lives there with her two sons and husband. In their spare time, they enjoy playing outside, enjoying nature and of course testing apps and fantastic products on their devices. My older son loves technology and loves testing out the “latest and newest” apps and tech. I love sharing information about apps and products with others to help them make decisions without feeling overwhelmed with all of the choices.

3 Comments

Stacey Lehwald
on November 14, 2015 at 7:35 am

I would love to win this app for my 5 yo, who loves balloons, and has a great imagination!

Wassi Chamsy homeschooling
on November 8, 2015 at 7:40 am

We love books apps!

Christina
on November 7, 2015 at 1:39 pm

This looks great as it seems to utilize one’s imagination!

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Meet the iMums

The iMums - Amanda, Alison, Mary and Grace - are four mothers from different parts of the world dedicated to informing parents about the best digital stories, educational apps, fun games and technology products available for their children. We also offer the latest news in apps for kids, interesting articles, developer interviews, free apps and regular giveaways! Read more.

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